Social Networking | Ghost of Midnight

“This person is MAD!!!!”

Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

People often ask how Front Porch Forum has grown so rapidly in such a short amount of time… it’s almost all word-of-mouth. Neighbor tells neighbor. Here’s a posting from a South Burlington neighborhood forum today that serves as a good example…

Re the notice about the appraisal increase… one of my neighbors did receive a notice like this. This person is MAD!!!! I am forwarding this to her, and encouraging her to join Front Porch Forum!

While we do see people come on board in reaction to a problem like this, it’s much more common for folks to join because they hear it’s a great way to connect with neighbors and plug into neighborhood news.

Is Front Porch Forum Nationwide?

Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Front Porch Forum subscribers frequently are surprised to learn that this free service was created right here in our corner of Vermont. It’s no secret… our start-up story has gotten decent local media coverage.

Here’s today’s example from a relatively long-time and active subscriber from Essex Junction…

First of all — will someone please tell me the “once upon a time” of Front Porch Forum. Since I’ve been a member, I’ve been singing its praises to family in Texas and most recently Oregon. But you know what!! I really don’t know where this started and I’m just now barely getting little hints and cues that this actually STARTED in VERMONT!!

Is this true?!! And if so, yet another reason for pride in this little state of ours.

Here I’ve been telling Texans and Oregonians — “Check out your own neighborhood. I’m assuming ‘Front Porch Forum’ is national, if not international.” Sooooo, if it hasn’t been done recently, I’d love to have someone fill in those of us who are in the dark. Or maybe post the “history” on the website under ABOUT US. Thanks in advance.

Second of all — I am indeed reaping the benefits of Front Porch Forum. I’ve established a weekly connection with a high school student who comes over and aids me with certain chores — recycle and trash out, groceries in, other lifting and tugging. He’s pleasant, dependable, willing, and courteous, and also a kindred theatre spirit by way of EHS drama program! He gets paid right away; and when he helped us with unloading and setting up our tag sale, he was able to earn more.

Local Businesses Loving Front Porch Forum Too

Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

More and more local businesses are putting Front Porch Forum to use. This week, Epik (one of only 15 Google-certified web shops globally) advertised its OM Boot Camp.

Front Porch Forum helped us draw a crowd to our Online Marketing Boot Camp!

— Hannah Boucher, Epik

And very small businesses are weighing in too…

I am speechless. I love this thing so much!
— Will Keyworth, Keyworth Graphics

To see a list of dozens of recent FPF sponsors and to explore our advertising program, click here.

Serendipity in the Neighborhood

Posted on Saturday, June 14, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Occasionally, someone will post a request on his/her FPF neighborhood forum the same day as a neighbor offers a solution to that request… unbeknown to each other. So the next issue of their neighborhood forum is published with the problem followed by the solution… all neat and tidy. Gotta love it. Here’s today’s simple example on a neighborhood forum with about 400 participating households…

Hi there! We were wondering if anyone might have a twin box frame floating around that they no longer need. We would love to have it for use of our four year old’s new mattress. Thank you very much! Sarah

The item above was posted at 4:00 PM followed at 4:01 PM by…

On the green strip in front of [our home on] Catherine St.: twin size mattress, box spring, and wooden frame; come and get it before the rain comes!

Hope they connected! Rain should be here soon!

Make every posting count… twice

Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Steve Yelvington posted today…

Knowledge@Wharton has an interview with Joe Kraus, director of product management at Google, in which he highlights the importance of social interaction on the Web:

“So, the killer apps that have really worked on the web have always been about connecting people to one another. So, whether it is instant messaging and e-mail as communications to connect people to one another, whether it’s photo-sharing as a way to connect people to one another through photos, or blogging as a way to connect people to one another through the words, people have always been social and the killer apps that have really succeeded on the web have always been social.”

This got me thinking about a couple recent conversations with folks asking about huge powerhouse online companies that have outposts in Burlington, VT, where we operate Front Porch Forum‘s pilot. The gist was… “Wouldn’t people be better off selling their car on Craigslist Burlington, seeking plumber recommendations on Angie’s List Burlington, giving away their old couch on FreeCycle Burlington and just using Front Porch Forum to organize block parties and find lost cats?”

Good question and I encourage people to use multiple services when they have the need. But like Krause says above, it’s all about connection. While websites offering classified ads, reviews, give-away matching, etc. by location COULD help people connect in some meaningful way, I don’t think they do. My sense is that they help facilitate the immediate and direct need (selling a car, finding a plumber), but they don’t touch the other… they don’t capitalize on the opportunity to add a brick to the house of local community with each interaction.

That’s what Front Porch Forum is all about. We aim to take every posting by clearly identified nearby neighbors and cobble them all together to build real community among neighbors and townsfolk. Why give away your moving boxes to anonymous distant strangers when you can offer them to your nearby neighbors and actually get to meet some people who live near you? That’s tapping the real potential of the internet… as Google’s Joe Krause says… it’s all about connecting people.

Or, as Wolfgang reported a month ago…

Just wanted to let you know that we sold our Minivan today to a neighbor through Front Porch Forum. We had more people expressing interest and more people showing up to look at the van who found out through the Forum than the interest generated by Burlington Free Press, Cars.com and Craigslist combined. Thanks!

So, again, I encourage folks in our service area to post their messages on any site they like… AND to post it on Front Porch Forum. The results typically speak for themselves.

New Friends and Snapping Turtles

Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Will just posted the following on his town’s Front Porch Forum…

Thanks to the Front Porch Forum for letting two would-be strangers recognize each other as a result of being FPF members. Last Sunday, while driving to town I saw a baby snapping turtle crossing the road right by the auto place on rte 2 between Richmond and rte 89. I parked where I could, jumped out of the car, grabbed some tools from the back of my car and proceeded to flag people to slow down as I approached the dazed turtle. A woman slowed and asked if I needed help, and I immediately said, “Yes!”

Though it was a baby, it was still about 14″ long and weighed about 30 pounds. So as I lifted the turtle, the woman who stopped to help steadied it while we escorted him across the rest of rte 2 and way up and over the other side of the railroad tracks. We bid him farewell and told him to NOT turn around! The kind woman and I exchanged names only to find that we recognized each other from the FPF. We had engaged in conversation through the forum, and I found it humbling to have actually known this person, though we had not actually met face to face. Thank you FPF for being an avenue for me to make new friends through! Hi Enid!

Multiply this story by thousands of times and you get what’s happening all over our little metro-area. Thanks for sharing Will!

How is Front Porch Forum like an iPhone?

Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch wrote today about Steve Jobs latest unveiling… the new iPhone, etc. Here’s the part that stood out for me…

We had a grand debate today on the Gillmor Gang about the iPhone and its place in history. The most interesting part of the discussion for me was the “closed v. open” question. That’s because ultimately I believe the iPhone isn’t competing with Windows Mobile or RIM as much as Google’s upcoming Android, a very open mobile platform.

The iPhone is a closed system, with locked down hardware and platform, and rigid rules for outside developers. Android is all about open. And open is always better, right?

As we’ve seen with Macs v. Windows, and then the iPod v. everyone, closed systems can work. Users will trade price and flexibility in exchange for simplicity and elegance. That’s hard to do when you’re building software that will work across a broad range of devices, technologies and software providers. It’s easy to do when you control both ends of the system, and everything in between.

Ultimately I concede that Android may have a much larger market share than the iPhone. But I’ll argue that the iPhone users will be much happier, even as Apple makes obscene profits off of that smaller user base.

I love the iPhone for the same reason I love technology in general, and loved Disneyland as a child – it drives my imagination and makes me wonder what kind of magic to expect next. Also, it just works.

This reminds me of a recent conversation I had with someone asking for a comparison of Front Porch Forum to other services, such as Yahoo Groups, Ning and iNeighbors.

We have very specific goals with Front Porch Forum, so it’s not a wide-open system. These other services offer a kind of blank slate on which group organizers can draw all sorts of great things for their individual members… or not. Front Porch Forum’s mission is not so much egocentric as it is neighborhood-centric. We’ve made our design decision to date to optimize neighbor connection and the sense of community within a neighborhood or town.

And while we’re light years away from a giant such as Apple, thousands of our subscribers in our pilot metro area are ga-ga over their FPF neighborhood forum. This would not be the case if we just offered an open-ended do-it-yourself kind of thing, like many other services. We get comments like the quote above all the time, praising FPF’s simplicity and ease of use.

People on the Move

Posted on Friday, June 6, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

People relocate… a lot. This is apparent through our work with Front Porch Forum. People contact us all the time to say that they’ve moved from one part of town to another and are eager to get plugged in to their new community via Front Porch Forum.

People move out of our service area too. Some ask to be “grandfathered in” and stay on board their FPF neighborhood forum covering their former area. Others say farewell… like Shawna just now formerly of Essex Junction…

I have moved out of the state. I’m now in NH and wish my community had this! Thanks.

Fowl Play Indeed

Posted on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Wendy in Winooski offered some of her garden plants to her neighbors via Front Porch Forum yesterday. This kind gesture didn’t work out so well…

Okay – I suppose I should have been more descriptive about those hens and chicks i wanted folks to help themselves to. They are small, round, green and grow in the ground.

A flamingo lawn ornament is pink, plastic, and stuck in the ground.

Someone apparently didn’t know the difference and removed the flamingo. Oh well.

College student likes connecting with new folks

Posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Got this nice note from Jamie at the University of Vermont today…

I absolutely LOVE what you’re doing. I think that Front Porch Forum is one of the best things to happen as a result of the internet. Everyone actually reads the emails and it’s a great way to connect with folks that you otherwise would have little interaction with.

Wow! Very nice. I know that all college students are supposedly on Facebook and YouTube 24/7, but I keep meeting local young-uns who aren’t that enthralled with the idea of living their lives through their laptops and cell phones.

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